PRESSURE is being put on housebuilder Linden Homes by Westbury Town Council who fear that nothing is being done to improve safety of the railway crossing in Oldfield Road.
Councillors and headteacher of Westbury Junior School, Richard Hatt, say that children from the new 300-house estate will have to use the crossing to get to school, which they deem as unsafe.
Frustrated about the lack of response from the housebuilder, members of the town council’s highways, planning and development (HP&D) at a recent meeting voted to make a stand. They voted against a proposal by Linden Homes to tweak the designs of some of the properties they are constructing, on the grounds that the crossing issue has still not been addressed.
At the meeting, cllr Gordon King agreed to withdraw his proposal that Linden Homes’ application to alter some of the designs be decided under officers’ delegated powers, after cllr Mike Sutton suggested they should object because of the crossing issue.
Cllr Sutton said, “I wonder if this is an opportunity for us to say as a council, ‘we object to the plan on the grounds they don’t mention any safe route for children to get to Westbury Junior School.’ It would force them to address it.
“I wonder if it’s a good opportunity for us to lay our concerns out where they can be dealt with in the open and give a straight answer for a change.”
Cllr Nick Pyne said he was “suspicious” about Linden Homes’ reasons for wanting to make the alterations and feared they were encroaching onto open land outside the development site.
Cllr Ward Jones agreed with cllr Sutton saying, “I think what we are saying is we are disappointed that in submitting this application, the applicant has not addressed the lack of a pedestrian crossing.”
Cllr Jane Russ supported cllr Pyne and cllr Sutton, saying, “[The applicant] should be looking at ways of getting the children to school. When looking at a very large set of plans like this there’s that feeling that what we are being offered is not quite what we think we are being offered.”
All members voted in favour of cllr Sutton’s proposal to object, except cllr King, who abstained.
Members previously raised fears there was potential for a tragedy because children being children would risk crossing the line at other points – and they called for urgent action.
Following the meeting, some councillors attended the site of the railway crossing with local MP, Andrew Murrison, who questioned the whereabouts of CIL money from the developer that could be spent on a proper locking railway crossing.
